wanted: a candidate who can close
by Tom Carey
Published: April 24, 2008
It’s obvious that Clinton decisively won the crucial Pennsylvania primary and since then she has declared that “the tide is turning” in the overall battle for the Democratic nomination. While she still trails in all measures of significance (states won, popular vote, overall delegate count), the way Pennsylvania voted should raise new questions about Barack Obama’s fundamental skills as a politician. I’m talking about his ability (or lack thereof) to hammer that final nail into Hillary Clinton’s coffin; to send her to the mat permanently with a TKO.
In baseball terms it’s the importance of the closer: your team leads and all that’s needed is someone to shut down the opposition. In politics the same rule applies: candidates, especially those like Obama in a long and challenging nomination fight, must be able to frame the race in a way that when the other side goes down, they fall hard and can’t get back on their feet.
Unfortunately, this has been the goal of Obama since his stunning performance in the Iowa caucuses at the very beginning of this year. First, it was his to win in New Hampshire, then on Super Tuesday, next in Ohio and Texas, and just yesterday in my home state of Pennsylvania. What happened in each of these cases? The door was not shut on Hillary Clinton’s presidential ambitions, rather it was always left just a crack open to allow her the minimum bit of credibility to continue on. The difference when it comes to Pennsylvania, however, is that her margin of victory (10 points) is by any political measure a solid performance and a decisive win in the most pivotal state left on the primary calendar. What does it mean for Barack Obama? Clinton has virtually been on political life support but the plug has not been pulled (pardon me conservatives, who read this and sense the Terri Schiavo undertones).
Obama is not at risk of losing the nomination and indeed he is still the frontrunner, but he needs to seal the deal and do it quickly. His pure skills as a politician are now fair game to question after so many examples of failing to close. It is not enough to say that Clinton had the support of Gov. Rendell and the establishment here in Pennsylvania or that the demographics favored her so much that Obama could never win. He cut her lead dramatically, yet could not overtake her on primary day, a result that should be weighed by those of us pondering Obama’s political savvy.
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April 24th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
You act like this is some how Obama’s fault for not just finishing her off. As if he has failed. The reality is this is a close election. And as long as Hillary Clinton want’s to scratch and crawl there’s nothing that Obama or any other candidate can do to finish her off.
It doesn’t matter how much Obama Dominates Hillary, as long as their is time on the clock, and states left to vote, Hillary is the only one that can end her run at the presidency.
This is serious problem though. Not because Obama can’t close, but because there are actually people who believe that this is some how his fault. Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Rudi Guliani, and all the other Republicans bowed out long ago when they realized it would take a miricle to win.
They did so not because they are week or don’t know how to fight, they did it because they knew that a long drawn out fight like the democrats are having wasn’t good for their party. If Romney would have stayed in the race he could have taken a lot of delegates away from McCain, and brought into question his ability to “close” too. He respectfully bowed out for the good of his own party, because he understood that if he picked away at McCain to much it would hurt his chance in November.
As long as Hillary stays in, there are a lot of women, and small town people who remember the good old days of Bill Clinton’s administration who will vote for her. There’s nothing Obama can do about that. But once all the states are counted, and all the votes are in Obama will have one. He will have closed. I just hope Hillary’s little escapade won’t have hurt her party so badly that it can’t recover in november.